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A.M. #52: Carolina

Posted Jan 27, 2014
by Aaron Portzline
| 0 comments

It's 60 degrees right now in Raleigh, N.C. 60. And the sun is blinding. People are eating outside. There's a sporting goods store selling sleds at 60 percent off because, ya know, the worst of 'winter' is in the past.

Do the Blue Jackets really have to play a game tonight?

Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards is trying hard to guard against this apathy reaching the players. Today's morning skate in PNC Arena looked more like an non-gameday practice, both in length and pace.

Keep in mind, the Blue Jackets not only play tonight against the Hurricanes -- puck drops at 7 p.m. -- but they return home to face the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday in Nationwide Arena.

"I thought it was an OK morning skate," Richards said. "I try not to read too much into the morning skates."

The Blue Jackets' eight-game winning streak ended with a thud on Saturday, a 5-2 loss to Buffalo. Richards is trying to keep his foot on the gas pedal -- cruise control not allowed -- so the Blue Jackets are still playing games when the weather is like this in the North Country ... you know, during the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Hurricanes are close enough to Jackets to smell their aftershave. The Blue Jackets have 56 points; the Hurricanes 55. They've each played 51. They are two key players in the traffic jam that is the Metropolitan Division.

"You guys (in the media) are the ones who have been talking about the streak a lot," Richards said. "For me, as a coach, it's the next game. If we would have won on Saturday, this game would mean exactly what it means now. It's a game against a strong divisional opponent. They're a point behind us, same number of games played. We're in their building and they've won three in a row.

"They play a fast game. They play an aggressive game; their defensemen really jump. It's going to really challenge our structure."

The Blue Jackets will have one lineup change tonight. They'll get back to playing six defenseman, with Cody Goloubef -- up from AHL Springfield -- slotting in next to Nikita Nikitin on the third pairing.

Goloubef would have played Saturday, but his travel was derailed by winter storms in the East and Midwest.

"I spent 12 hours in the Philadelphia airport," Goloubef said. "Cozy. I made some new friends."

David Savard (illness) remains in Columbus. Tim Erixon, called up yesterday from Springfield, will be a healthy scratch tonight.

Dalton Prout remains in Springfield, where the organization wants him to play and get back on top of his game. His timing has been off, it seems, since he missed most of training camp.

"When I talked to (Springfield) coaches early in the year, (Goloubef) was playing against the top lines, and playing well," Richards said. "When I talked to them just recently it was the same thing."

Does this represent a shift in the organizational depth chart? In the short term, yes.

"(Dalton) needs to know he's going to be in a place for a little while and play, just to get his game back on track," Richards said. "And some of it is based on Cody and how he's played. He's done a good job down there.

"Dalton is an NHL player, but he needs to play. We don't want him sitting up here being a seventh guy. He's a young player in our organization, and he still needs to develop. (Savard) gets sick and the door opens up, but it was almost a normal call-up ... Cody was playing well."

There's also a slightly newsy non-lineup change.

Forward Blake Comeau was activated from the injured list on Sunday and he took part in today's morning practice, but he'll be a healthy scratch tonight.

"I like the way we've played recently," Richards said. "That line ends up scoring two goals for us last game."

Side dishes:

-- G Sergei Bobrovsky goes for the Blue Jackets tonight vs. Carolina's Anton Khudobin. Bobrovsky is a Russian and Khudobin a Kazakh, but they grew up only 11 hours apart by car, which is pretty closeby in that part of the world. Bobrovsky is from Novokuznetsk, Russia, which is closer to Mongolia than Moscow. Khubodin is from Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, which is the far eastern part of the country.

-- Richards confirmed that Bobrovsky will start tonight. He was pulled from Saturday's loss. A decision on a Tuesday starter vs. Ottawa will be made after tonight's game.

-- Carolina's Kirk Muller was asked which Blue Jackets' forward line he sees as the No. 1, the line that must be checked to have success: "If I look at their team, is more the way they play. They're straight line. They work hard. Their identity, when I watch them, is as a good transition team that goes hard to the net. They have a blue-collar, working team. There's some skill there. As far as the makeup of their team, it's really the make-up of their lines ... the Dubinskys and these other guys, they play straight line. They play hard. We have to win the one-on-one battles."

-- Former Blue Jacket Manny Malhotra has found a spot in Carolina's lineup as the third-line center. He has 6-5-11 in 39 games and is winning a whopping 59.8 percent of faceoffs. More on him in Tuesday's paper.

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